A Tasmanian bus driver whose negligent driving killed a father and his two-year-old daughter will avoid jail.
Christine Helen Chatterton was handed a three-month suspended sentence by Magistrate Marica Duvnjak in the Hobart Magistrates Court on Friday afternoon.
She was found guilty of two counts of causing death by negligent driving in June.
Chatterton was behind the wheel of an empty passenger bus in the Kingston area in 2020 when she braked too hard to avoid crashing into a slowing queue of cars, causing the wheels to lock.
The bus swerved into the southbound lane, colliding with a car carrying a man and his two-year-old daughter, killing them both.
Magistrate Duvnjak said she had received victim impact statements from the man's wife and mother, which "spoke of the immeasurable loss, sadness and grief" they had suffered.
She said Chatterton had never been involved in an accident before and was "highly regarded" at the bus company where she had worked for 37 years.
Chatterton had volunteered to do a school run at the last minute after another employee called in sick.
Magistrate Duvnjak said Chatterton's offending was at the "lower end of the scale of seriousness".
She said Chatterton was not affected by drugs nor alcohol, not exceeding the speed limit, and had kept an acceptable distance between her bus and the vehicles travelling in front of her.
Magistrate Duvnjak said her excessive braking only lasted momentarily, but it "gave rise to serious consequences".
"She took actions to bring the vehicle under control … but, unfortunately, couldn't do that," Magistrate Duvnjak said.
She said Chatterton — who has relinquished her bus driver's licence — avoids the area where the crash occurred and is unable to return to full-time work, had been "significantly impacted", experiencing considerable stress and anxiety as a result of the incident.
